Harry stepped forward again, his voice rising to call over his shoulder, but his attention seemed to be only half upon them, as the approaching army now earned more and more of his attention. "Check your own history. It's happened before. Large corporations. Conquering empires."
"Laborers capable of living Multi-century lifespan, combined with brute strength while being technical prodigies. Definitely a resource any despot would want at their beck and call," Harry's eyes narrowed, "Maybe you're right. They're hoping to cause a major drain on your Republic resources and a protracted draining battle. Maybe you're wrong and they're hoping for a quick subjugation of this planet." "Whatever their goals…" Harry's voice trailed off for a moment before he lifted his head and straightened. "Today… they fail."
Harry's wand was in his hand once more as he stepped completely out from cover his cloak billowing in the wind.
Aayla was struck in that moment. The view she had was exactly the same as the one she had in one of her visions. Harry stepping forward, alone against a droid army. Only a moment later the image was shattered as Ahsoka moved to stand up beside him. She didn't know what was going on, but she wasn't going to just leave him alone to face the odds, even if there was nothing she could add at the moment but just wordless support.
He glanced over at her and a small smile crossed his face but he wasn't sure what to say, so he simply nodded in wordless… was it approval or thanks? before turning to face the landing droid army once more.
Hundreds of ships descending simultaneously from the air above to land in the areas that had already been secured by the smaller forces ahead of them. The sky was practically filled with the ships as they slowly lowered to invade the Wookiee home world. The entire horizon, up and down the beach they stood upon, contained nothing but ships in the air.
It stretched for miles in either direction, only ending on the very edge of their Jedi enhanced vision. Most of the ships were multi-troop transports ready to offload squad after squad of droids on the beach, including several platoon attack craft skimming over the water setting up a perimeter around the beachhead they wished to form
Aayla counted more than three dozen familiar forms of C-9979 landing craft still descending from the sky to add more droid foes. To her own horror, she wished she wasn't so prodigious with numbers, as the idea of fighting 150 thousand droids and 4,000 tanks frightened her more than anything she had ever experienced, and that was all that she could see at this very moment. She knew to pacify a planet that this scene was repeating itself with just as many drop ships up and down the coast far beyond her current sight.
Idly, Aayla noted that it looked like the force was made up almost completely of droids. It didn't look like there were any bank or commerce guild troops among those landing. Though there were some command areas so the force wasn't entirely droid. Time seemed to stand still for one brief shining moment to the two Jedi and one exile. The increasingly warm dry heat that was carried in the wind lost the scalding temperature that had been steadily rising, the overcast sky seemed to darken further and the sounds of the waters of the morning tide that lapped against the shores seemed suddenly muted.
The only thing that seemed active was Harry, as he began to murmur something. Harry began to wave his wand. His motions were totally ornate and smooth, quite unlike many of the haphazard gestures he seemed to favor. It wasn't just his wand that moved in a fluid motion, his entire body seemed to shift and move as he gestured to the sides, to no discernible effect. Even with the enhanced hearing the Jedi had ears ten meters behind him couldn't make out the sounds of what he was saying, but they were distracted by the immediate disturbance of the Force around them as it continued to build into a crescendo unlike any they had ever experienced. It filled their senses utterly as it rose, almost blinding them to what their five normal senses were telling them.
Accordingly, the wind pushed even harder, causing the three to struggle to stand upright. Though Harry looked like he had little trouble remaining standing while he continued to move.
Then as suddenly as he had started, Harry stopped moving and raised his arms, spreading them wide and gesturing up and down the shoreline. As if that were some pre-arranged signal, the buildup of the Force stopped at an apex, and the wind that had been blowing ceased immediately, leaving nothing but the distant sound of crashing waves and repulsorlift engines.
Finally, even as the movements of his arms had stopped, his head bowed in supplication, as if he had just invoked some primal force that required worship. After a moment's pause, and what all could clearly hear as a deep breath, he lifted his head and spoke clearly for the first time since he had started murmuring.
The three women behind him would forever swear they were sure his voice could have been heard for miles.
"Agni Incaendium!" For just a moment nothing happened. There was absolute and utter silence.
And then an explosion of Force. They all felt it pass over them so intensely they felt like they were bathing in it and barely managed to stay on their feet as wave over wave of pure Force power buffeted them.
In the clouds above them, a glowing circle over one hundred meters across appeared, visible to anyone who so much as glanced at the sky for miles around. The droid army could see the unprecedented event before them the same as anyone else. Their programming seemed to not know how to handle such an occurrence, and the attack force halted immediately as it waited for orders on how to proceed. Along with the glowing circle came a loud booming sound, from which a brilliant sapphire flame shot down into the open air.
The two Jedi and one former Padawan could only stare at the ball of fire as it began to change shape..
The blue fire took the form of horses leading chariots and immediately engulfed one of the C-9979 transports in the air. The fire went over and around and completely obscured the transport for a full ten seconds before moving on, vectoring toward another. Leaving behind a blackened and twisted wreckage that was now tumbling out of the sky.
The attention of the women was drawn back to the sky as another patch of the clouds turned into a glowing circle before exploding downward in fire, only this time the fire was an ruby red.
They heard him whisper the words again somehow, and the Force responded each time with another roar of colored fire that descended.
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